


Close

by Willowshade



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, One Shot, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 21:26:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8816767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willowshade/pseuds/Willowshade
Summary: Sasuke was everywhere, surrounding her from all sides, burning his presence in her mind.





	

He appears sometimes when she is walking to her work and makes her company. 

He walks a good distance apart, hands buried in his pocket, but his eyes are glued to her and he listen to whatever she says with rapid attention. She feels that she is in the spotlight. Every more of hers being watched by his very attentive audience and it felt almost as intimate as a kiss they didn't share yet. 

Sasuke makes her feel as if she is the only thing in the world for him in some moments. Elsewhere seemed to cease to exist for him. And he doesn't even seem to know or to control this, it's almost as he doesn't know his level of intensity and how intoxicating it can be. She arrives light headed in the hospital, a smile permanently stuck in her face. 

 

He appears announced. She thinks it's a power play and she wishes she disliked it more than she actually does, because she craves his presence too much to care at how inconstant it is. Unless Sakura intervenes, unless she tries to hold onto him, he appears whenever he wants, when he wants, and does whatever he wants. Sometimes that includes entertaining her, listening to whatever rant or thought she has, sometimes it involves completely double crossing her. 

"And your point is?" 

Sakura huffed. She couldn't tell how an innocent question about her works in the Child's Clinic made them fall into an argument about the human nature. Sasuke was of the opinion that most people were selfish and ignorant, and Sakura defended that everyone had goodness inside of them and had more critic sense than they wee given credit of. 

"You know what, let's stop discussing this." She said, feeling more than a little riled up. She felt hot and the collar of her shirt. She needed to wind up to dissipate the tension he created out of thin air. 

"Fine." It wasn't as if he was smirking, but he exuded satisfaction, as if just coming out of a high.

She could never understand whatever Sasuke got from arguing with her, it was obvious that he liked it. But she couldn't tell if he truly enjoyed doing it, or if it was compensation for something, like a lack of physical contact. 

 

He was being more touchy, as of late.

Nothing traditionally couple-y though. Whenever he felt like teasing her, he would flicker her forehead. When she felt too tired, too sleepy after a shift, he would ground her with an hand in the shoulder, or a light hold on her wrist. It was similar to the way he would guide her movements when he instructed her during training. Much to her surprise, he easily accepted her invitation to train together for the first time. Now they almost had a routine in the weeks. 

Sasuke had infinite patience when it came to training. He was willing to teach her whenever taijutsu move she felt like learning and was welcoming to any of her tips as well. 

Sakura was the one that would get impatient, some days she couldn't take the countless repetitions Sasuke demanded.

Her breath was labored when he called from behind her. 

"Again." 

She fell in the position but it wasn't perfect yet. to his standards. He quietly moved her forearms wide apart with his palm, spaced her legs with his foot making contact with her calves.

Sakura bit her lips to control her frustration.

 

They wrestled more often than not in the sparring matches. It was a logical course of action from someone fighting against her. Since she had the upper hand in the strength of the blows, his choice was to restrain her movements with tackles using his larger body frame. Unfortunately for him, Sakura knew how to evade them quite easily. They end rolling in the ground in a mess of limbs, muscles straining and all raged breath. It was messy and dirty but she could win like this, restraining him into a submission hold, either shoving his face against the grass of the training field, tying his arms in his back, pinning him with her knees. He would curse and glare, and it always music to her ears. But, after putting all the resistance possibly, he would gracefully accept his defeat and accept her hand to haul him from the ground.

He was also a good winner. If he got her restrained, he would ask her to concede as he would smile slightly. It was such a savage, little provocative smile. All sharp edges together with his eyes burning with promises of passion and another sort of competition entirely. And she couldn't bring it in herself to resent any scrapped knees or busted lips. 

 

She always healed whatever she could anyway, patching them up until the only evidence of their matches would be dirty clothing and their skin glistening with sweat. Sasuke, though, didn't seem to understand she couldn't heal everything. If he so much had cut a finger in the kitchen, he would come to her and ask for a fix. 

"Just suck it." She'd said, getting tired of reciting the explanation of why it wasn't ok to use medical ninjutsu all the time, since it stopped the immune system from actually work and getting into contact with new pathogens. 

Perhaps it was just an excuse to seek her out. Who would know? After all, Sasuke was still so secretive about his intentions.

 

She feels sometimes as if facing a puzzle when dealing with him. If she could try an educated guess, Sakura would say that Sasuke wanted to know everything about her, to the most harmless to the unspeakable. He had various methods of doing this. He could extract information of others. His favorite targets were store owners and coworkers. "Does Haruno Sakura come here often?", "What brand of tea she prefers?", "When does her shift end?" With this info, he could drop by in the middle of her day, without disrupting much of her routine, as if he was just passing by. 

"What a coincidence!" Sakura smirked at him, as they met in the tea shop just in the break of her shift.

He smirked. He was so full of shit. "Indeed." 

He would also come to Naruto, taking advantage of his obliviousness, and get answers that maybe he shouldn't have. Naruto had told him that Sakura had defeated Sasori acting like a human-doll, plus allowing to be poisoned just so she could strike back. It had a backslash. 

"You are so reckless." That was his quiet reaction, after a about a week of sulking and avoiding her. "Can't you with all your smarts develop a better strategy that doesn't include volunteering as a target?"

 

Most worryingly, he would look at official files. Her mission files even. When Tsunade busted him, he coldly reasoned he had to know her experience and her history to be able to help her come with a better strategies. While certainly endearing that he was worried about her, Sakura had her limits too. 

"I know what I am doing, Sasuke."

He looked like a dejected, rebel puppy. "I know you do." 

 

Depending of the kind of information he was seeking, though, he would just ask her, in a covert way or being as blunt as an rust knife.

"What do you see in me?" 

Sakura looked at him when she heard the soft question. His profile had as background the soft grass as they sat in the open field, in a rare opportunity to get away from the city. It was a rare admission of insecurity, and she treasured it because it showed that he trusted her enough to accommodate this openness.

"I see a person I adore, someone that I want to be happy." She said, with a smile. Sasuke looked away, as he always did when she talked about her affection. She used this breach to get a hold of his hands. She run her thumb through his knuckles, and kissed one, twice, the back of his hand. 

In response Sasuke looked completely crushed, in pieces, at the same time he seemed grateful as someone would be after she mended ruptured tissue after ruptured tissue, healing a gaping wound. He seemed moved, despite being so stiff his expression was frozen in mute surprise. And the fact she could shake him with a simple gesture almost made her loose her cool. She wanted to throw her arms around him, but instead she laced their fingered together and squeezed his palm. 

He looked at their joined hands as if it was something otherworldly.

 

Observant as she was, it took some time for Sakura to notice he was mimicking some of her behavior. It was harder than she thought to recognize her acts seeing thought another person. 

Sasuke offered, quite frequently, to do something practical for her. He would volunteer to do grocery shopping during her long shifts, he would carry her stuff when she couldn't hold it right, he would make her tea when she visit him in his house, and offer to cook for her. It was the type of thing she did for him in some point, and that he was willing to do for her, too. He had grown adept of showing gratitude beyond his words, or was it affection?

"If you thank me so much, I can't help but think you feel indebted with me in some way" 

"But I do." 

 

He was also picking up her habit of drinking, to her chagrin. And for someone that never drank, he put up a facade of being a heavy weight. Sakura would usually be the one to provide them with sake, but Sasuke unceremoniously could as easily summon a bottle in his house, and stubbornly refuse to let her glass drop to more than half.

"Are you trying to let me drunk?" 

"I could ask you the same." Until he pointed it out, Sakura didn't realize she provided him enthusiastic refills. Unsettling how he picked up habits she didn't know she had. He may or not may be doing it on purpose, just to get it back at her. 

One day they lay in the floor, satisfied as only drunk people can be laying in hard surfaces. Sasuke hugged her tights with both hands bringing them to his chest, and resting his head over then, as if they were some kind of soft pillow. It was the most amusing thing she ever saw it was kind of cute. Despite the obvious blush on his face, he claimed to not remember the incident.

 

When she got him a gift for his birthday, a book about cracka control, he took less than one week to give her a gift of his own. 

"But it's not my birthday yet." She said, stunned dumb. 

"Does it matter." He said exasperated, as he pushed the small package further in her direction, sliding it against his tabletop. 

Despite her initial exasperation, she was pretty excited for his gift. The package was red, tied with a white ribbon. She placed it in her hands and knew it was some kind of jewelry. She opened it with shaking hands, feeling nervous out of sudden. Inside, there was a choker. It had a silvery thin chain, with a red, stone pageant in the shape of a rectangle. It was the color of blood with streaks of black. 

"Thank you." She said, looking up at his expectant expression. "It's beautiful." 

As sakura was raising her arms to put it on, Sasuke got up and moved closer. 

"Come here." He beckoned. 

Sakura followed him to the front of a large mirror, the only object in a empty room that smelled of dust. He walked to her back. Slowly he put the choker around her neck, and fumbled to clasp it, sending goosebumps in her nape at each failed attempt. Sakura watched his reflection with wide wide eyes, engraving everything in her memory, until he succeeded. 

He lingered close. His breath ghosting her neck for a few agonizing seconds, as he stood behind her and met her eyes through the mirror. 

 

She never used his gift. 

If she did, somebody would question her about it. Sakura rarely wore any jewelry, and when she did, it was on some occasion. There were no festivals or parties in coming, and something striking as that would catch attention in day-to-day life. She would be forced to answer that Sasuke gave it to her, and that she wanted to avoid.

Sasuke was very private. Whatever they had was just among the two of them, and he seemed intent on keeping in that way. In the rare occasions Sasuke would appear at gatherings with their old pears from the academy, he would avoid looking at her and would keep interaction at minimum. It was almost as if he was afraid of showing others that side of him. Sakura knew Sasuke wasn't as indifferent as he looked upon first glance. He cared about others people opinion.

She takes his necklace in her hands one day, and wonders just what he has been thinking when he gave it to her. Could it be that despite of his privacy, he wanted her to wear it? And its colors, red and black, reminds her of him, his sharingan eyes, the red of the fawn of his clan. It was almost as if he was giving her a part of himself... Something she would always have, even if she didn't show it to the world.

She didn't mind it. There was a light feeling of satisfaction in her, knowing that she was the only one to witness Sasuke's burning eyes, his quiet single-minded watchfulness over her. It was a show meant for her audience only. She didn't care if nobody knew, she too thought it was better kept just between them.

 

Besides, Sasuke's need of privacy often landed them in interesting situations. 

"Just what are you doing." Her tone was a mix of exasperation and amusement at seeing Sasuke perched on her windowsill like a overgrown bird. 

He glared at her. "What does it looks like." He whispered. The night hid most of his face from her view, but she could see his eyes flashing red for a moment.

"It looks like you were attempting to break into my apartment." Sakura said, watching his growing irritation. "I should inform that violating households is a crime..."

He growls lowly and she giggles. "I should get you arrested..." She said, even as she opened her window for him to enter. It wasn't wise to tease Sasuke too much when he was on such awkward position. 

He's in her room swiftly in one movement, looking around unabashedly. Sakura's room could very well be a library missing shelves, as the books lay in piles across the floor. The only thing that gave the bedroom function of the space was the presence of her bed, in which she was sleeping until he began punching her window. 

His gaze sets on her, finally. She gazes back at him, defiantly, ignoring the self-conscious she feels. She's in civilian pajamas that could belong to a 12 year old, there's a cute cat on her t-shirt, and her shorts are stripped. If she knew he was coming in the dead of the night, she would put her sexy sleeping robe. She crosses her arms over her chest as she didn't wore a bra.

"Well." She drawled. "Is there a good reason as to why you are here, or you just wanted to see my face?" She whispered, mindful of the neighbors sleeping on the floors bellow them.

Sasuke takes three steps, and it's all it takes to cross the distance between them. "I wanted to see you." He mutters, sending a shiver down her body at his murky tone.

He backs her into the wall quickly with his body. His hands move to unfold her arms, and she lingers on the sensation of him running his palms against it. She grabs his hands when she has the chance and it makes Sasuke leans down, his forehead coming to rest on hers, a long sigh escaping his lips. It's just then, when she feels the unmistakable smell of alcohol on his breath that she realizes the situation is a bit off. 

Sasuke has never entered her house uninvited before. And she didn't know that he drank by himself. 

She feels nervous and excited. "You're drinking without me now?"

He didn't reply, instead he just sighted, he looked away from her eyes.

"I'm leaving tomorrow."

That stilled everything but the wild beat in her heart. It made sense, now, the gift. A parting memento, it seemed. She smiled, wistful, feeling very calm because she knew what to do. She raised her hand to reach his face. If he was leaving her with a gift to remind her of him, then she was doing the same. Something to ponder about.

She pressed herself close to him. He's all open. No walls, no games, he trusts her. Waits for her, watching her every more. She cups his cheek with her palm, as he leans down, she swallow in dry by the way it made his gaze burn. It brings a tight knot to her throat, leaves her mouth dry. This could be love, she thinks, but the realization doesn't make her feel lighter. It doesn't make the world stop moving.

There's a steady, the slow intoxication, instead. As they kiss, it feels like drowning, like letting themselves be dragged and pulled by gravity, to the very bottom of the ocean of unrepentant desire. To where only darkness and the sense of vision's useless. To where where's few sound and few movement. So that's when the stillness is broken it feels like thunder howling, and it echoes and rattles in her bones. It's only apparent stillness though. As they delve deep bellow there's escalating pressure building, as in the ocean floor there's fissures where magma spills and rebuilds the earth.

There's a vastness of the abyssal depths in this. If this is love, it's unfathomable, ubiquitous. It's just theirs. 

"I'll miss you." He whispers, in the skin of her back, pushing her close together as they lie in the bed.

 

She watches his back from the gate until it disappears in the horizon. She never loved him more. Theirs was a story of perpetual endings and beginnings, of shifting and changing into something unknown, unexpected. She realizes she's not waiting anymore for him, she's part of this journey. She doesn't know where's the destination, but she'll see it through the end.

 

 

"Sakura." He smiles, his eyes catching light from the sun. "I'm back."

**Author's Note:**

> \---
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
